Symposium reports 



6. 



D.R.NEWTH and M. BALLS, eds. 1979. MATERNAL EFFECTS IN DEVELOPMENT 

 Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, etc. VIII, 420 pp., 54 figs., 26 tabs., 

 combined taxonomic and subject index. £ 35.00 



Contributors: Beetschen, Billett, Billington, Cohen, Deuchar , Dohmen, 

 Ford, Jones, Knowland, Laskey, Lees, McLaren, Malacinsky, Morriss, Smith, 

 Sommerville, Tilney-Bassett, Warn 



The topic of the fourth symposium of the British Society for Developmental 

 Biology, held in Exeter in September 1978, was a timely one. It is salutary 

 for embryologists and others to be reminded from time to time that develop- 

 ment is not the outcome of the genetic programme inscribed in the DNA, but 

 that the egg is the decoding machinery for the tape that is the genetic code 

 (paraphrased from Jack Cohen's thoughtful introductory chapter). Cohen even 

 advances the possibility that the embryo essentially inherits the code and 

 the decoding machine separately and in parallel (even if the mother's code 

 contains some of the instructions for building the tape player) . "To under- 

 stand the first steps of morphogenesis we must understand not only the code 

 but also the decoding machine", and that is where maternal effects can help 

 us considerably. 



All of the 17 reviews in the volume are interesting. No discussions are 

 recorded. There is much emphasis on the amphibians and mammals while Droso- 

 phila is somewhat underrepresented with one paper on pole plasm. It is a 

 pity that only a few papers have summaries. The volume is adequately illus- 

 trated. 



7. 



S.SUBTELNY and I . R. KONIGSBERG, eds. 1979. DETERMINANTS OF SPATIAL ORGANIZATION 

 Academic Press, New York, etc. Thirty-Seventh Symposium of the Soc. for 

 Developm. Biol. XXIV, 333 pp., 122 figs., 23 tabs., combined taxonomic & sub- 

 ject index. $ 24.00, £ 15.60 



Contributors: Brothers, Bryant, Campbell, Dohmen, Frankel, Freeman, Hirsh, 

 Kalthoff, Lawrence, Mahowald, Niisslein-Volhard, Quatrano, Whittaker, Wolk 



It is easy to be enthusiastic about this book, the outcome of a symposium 

 held in Madison, Wis. in June 1978. The meeting was well planned and the con- 

 tributions are almost without exception highly interesting and readable re- 

 views of recent work; some of them make exciting reading. The 10-page pre- 

 face by the second editor is in fact a thoughtful summary of the symposium. 



The 14 chapters are arranged in three sections as follows: Cytoplasmic 

 localization in early development (6) ; Maternal effect mutants of development 

 (3, of which one on nematodes); Pattern formation in developing systems (5, 

 of which one each on ciliates and blue-green algae) . 



The volume is well produced and has a profusion of good figures. 



8. 



S.SUBTELNY and I.M.SUSSEX, eds. 1978. THE CLONAL BASIS OF DEVELOPMENT 

 Academic Press, New York, etc. 36th Symposium of Soc. for Developm. Biol. 

 VIII, 251 pp., 104 figs., 12 tabs., subject index. $ 19.50 



Contributors: Bryant, Coe, Garcia-Bellido, Green, McClintock, Meins, 

 Migeon, Morata, Mullen, Nesbitt, Sachs, Stewart, Wieschaus 



The notion of a clonal basis for development is emerging as a possible 

 alternative or at least a complement for the morphogenetic field concept. 

 It was a good idea of the Society for Developmental Biology to devote this 

 symposium (held in Raleigh, N.C. in June 1977) to what is essentially an 



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